How much does your past impact your present? Being able to timeslip would certainly provide a bit of information about your heritage, wouldn’t it?

In Carol Wilkinson’s latest book, Inheritance, Nic discovers her inheritance includes the ability to ‘time slip’, which first comes about when she is left at her mother’s childhood home. Left in the care of her crotchety old grandfather – since her father travels a lot for work, and her mother died in childbirth, she has lots of time to explore the remote family property.

Family secrets intrigue Nic, and as she explores – the house, the local community and the attitudes of the locals, conflict, confrontation, and secrets arise. Left very much to her own devices, she finds much more than she expected – slipping back to times of old in the rural district.

‘Inheritance’ has the usual ponderings of whether the past can be changed if you act proactively in the past. As she time slips, Nic meets her mother and other native residents of her rural community who add to her understanding of her family’s standing in the local community. But what is the real purpose of her visits to the past?

The conflicts of European and the native peoples of Australia during western settlement play a key part in the history of the Mitchell family, which Nic discovers during her timeslips. She discovers the shocking truth of her ancestors’ participation in a massacre. In the present, she teams up at school with Thor, another teen trying to understand his own ancestral legacy.

This is a well-considered story dealing with our Australian heritage from alternate points of view – settler vs aboriginal, Nic vs her ancestors, Nic vs Thor, grandfather vs granddaughter. It presents some interesting what-ifs and asks us to consider Australia’s brutal settlement history, and how we should begin to make amends.

Would you like to timeslip to find out about your family’s past? What would you change if you could?

For other books by Carol Wilkinson see: http://carolewilkinson.com.au/books/